Five Out: The Caitlin Clark - Aliyah Boston connection is growing, more coverage for Rickea Jackson and is the WNBA an activist league?

Vegas vibe check, a spiking Fever and the Mystics win not once but twice! Andrew's thoughts on the world of women's basketball for the week of June 17th, 2024.

Courtesy: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

I recently quit Twitter at the request of my wife. The app had successfully, for years, sucked me into a maw that I couldn’t get out of even on days when I questioned why I had it in the first place. She could see that it was making me a worse version of myself and said it might be best to take a break. They say happy wife, happy life but what they omit is that ‘happy life’ can in some cases apply to both people in the marriage.

While I’ve found myself to be a generally more pleasant person away from the horrors of the bird, it has made for a fascinating perception of how all this WNBA stuff looks away from that platform. But one thing that still is wild about the app, however enshittified and dying it may be, is that it still drives discussion in media that ends up being broadcast out by more traditional means. It’s really the only way to explain how CNN was running a segment on Angel Reese’s flagrant foul on Caitlin Clark on Sunday.

Maybe the solution is to just follow my wife’s lead and unplug Twitter for the summer and see if sane conversation can return to WNBA discourse. Unfortunately the reality is that they’d probably just flock to Reddit. And I will die before I see them come for r/wnba and r/ncaaw. Now to the column…

1. The Vegas vibes are off…is Chelsea Gray really the fix-all?

I’m not sure if it’s the injuries, another league investigation or just a bit of a slump after two straight title runs but the Las Vegas Aces are not themselves right now. From 2020 to 2023, this team posted a season win percentage no lower than .722 (26-10 in 2022). Heading into the back half of June the Aces are 6-6 and have lost four of their last five. What gives?

It’s been pointed out ad nauseum that Chelsea Gray is still out of the lineup and her return timetable is a little murky at the moment. There’s no true point guard on this team as Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum have both been prone to bad shooting nights here and there. Kiah Stokes has had good moments on the defensive end but we’re now two weeks into a stretch where she’s looked unplayable in certain spots. Head Coach Becky Hammon has noticed, as Stokes is seeing less minutes each game, instead opting for doses of Megan Gustafson or a four guard lineup that brings in Tiff Hayes, Kate Martin or Syd Colson. They’re also asking Young to essentially be a point guard, which impacts her on the defensive end and isn’t her natural position within the flow of the offense. So yes, there’s things Gray can fix immediately.

The concern highlighted by the Storm last week seems to be showing now though. This team just doesn’t have much in the frontcourt beyond A’ja Wilson and there’s even stretches where the runaway MVP candidate isn’t getting nearly enough touches possession to possession. Emma Cannon was waived and 6’5 rookie center Jessika Carter joined the team Sunday to bolster the front line. But the last couple of weeks have been worrisome especially on the defensive end. Opponents are averaging 39% from 3 point range and are tenth in the league in defensive rating (tied with the Dallas Wings). It’s worth noting that they had a 6-6 stretch from June to July during the 2022 season and figured it out. Is the same turnaround coming this year?

2. The Mystics won…twice!

ALL HAIL THE ELDEST BOY! Eric ‘Kendall Roy’ Thibault finally got his moment after 12 straight losses to open the season. It began with an absolute three point barrage against the Atlanta Dream in which Washington shot 17-31 from beyond the arc for a blistering hot 54.8 shooting percentage. Brittney Sykes was back in the lineup in that game and it was clear how much she helps round out that Mystics lineup, allowing Julie Vanloo to come off the bench alongside Shatori Walker-Kimbrough. That was then followed up with an 83-81 win over the Chicago Sky. In that one, the Mystics blew a 15 point lead before managing to hold off a surging Sky and seal a win late.

What does it all mean? At the very least it shows that winning can be contagious. While this very column wondered if there was a structural problem with the roster, the Mystics had been in multiple games that were close losses. Change a possession in Los Angeles, Phoenix and at home against Indiana and Washington is 5-9 instead of 2-12.

The brightest upside spot continues to be Aaliyah Edwards, who had one of her best games of the year against the Sky, registering 16 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks on 85.7% shooting. Like most of the rookies in this class, she’s had down games but the upside (shown against the Sky twice, oddly enough) is clearly there. Does it mean we’re going to see a Mystics win streak fly past two? Potentially. They have the Fever and the Wings twice this week.

3. Media friends: Don’t miss out on covering Rickea Jackson.

When we talk about centering coverage around players, we as media outlets are the ones that set the agenda. It’s easy to complain about something not being written about or discussed. But it’s easier to just go ahead and highlight the thing you want. So enter Rickea Jackson, who, for reasons I don’t understand, was heralded as potentially the highest upside pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft but immediately got lost in the shuffle once the season started. While we saw little pieces of Jackson and Cameron Brink together seemingly taking over the city, it looked as though Brink was most poised to become the face of the franchise while earning praise for genuinely good natured comments about her standing in the league and culture writ-large.

The irony is that in some people’s pursuit to draw a juxtaposition of Brink’s comments to Caitlin Clark’s perceived silence on issues of privilege, they inadvertently centered Brink at Jackson’s expense. So let’s start to rectify that here.

And here’s the thing: the coverage equity isn’t a handout. It’s well-earned. It took about two weeks into the season before Curt Miller decided to start her and in the last week we’re starting to see upticks in her minutes as well as an improvement in her shooting. In three of her last four games, she’s scored at least 16 points on at least 50% shooting. Her scoring ability is advanced for a rookie only a month into her career. Three levels, finishing in traffic, taking players off the dribble, posting up, running in transition. She does everything. The refinement of the game and some additional defensive improvements will really show her ceiling. But as we talk about a transformational rookie class, I implore folks to look to the second biggest media market and make Brink and Jackson both the queens of that city alongside Dearica Hamby. The wins will come. Right now though, enjoy being in on Rickea Jackson first. Then you get to gatekeep later when everyone else gets hip to it (kidding, please don’t do that).

4. The Clark - Boston duo is beginning to arrive.

Sunday’s matinee matchup on CBS between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky couldn’t have been a better advertisement for the league. After a first matchup that might as well have ripped a hole in the space-time continuum, the eyes of America descended on Gainbridge Fieldhouse to see these two teams meet again. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has long talked about wanting more, higher quality and higher stakes rivalries in the league and this game checked all those boxes.

What we received was a generally clean — no, I’m not discussing the Angel Reese foul. It was a foul. It was ruled a flagrant. We move — fun, high quality game that had a well paced ending. Reese had a double-double, Chennedy Carter dropped 18 points on 8/14 shooting, Aliyah Boston continued her hot streak with 19 points and 14 rebounds while NaLyssa Smith went nearly nuclear in the fourth quarter.

Caitlin Clark, for her part, had what may have been her best game as a rookie. 23 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds. She distributed the ball, protected it moderately well (5 turnovers but a slight improvement from past games), and hit big shots in big moments. What we saw this game is a glimpse into what we thought was pre-ordained: the Aliyah Boston - Caitlin Clark connection. Boston’s fluidity slipping off screens has improved massively and Clark’s timing has made for cleaner passes and looks at the rim. The result: 6 baskets scored off the CC-AB connection.

In hindsight, maybe this was our fault. There was a general assumption that what we saw on Sunday was what we’d see from day one. Whatever happened in the last week with regard to locker room discussions, or players just playing into shape, or getting actual time off after a brutal schedule to open the year, there seems to be a weight off this Fever team. While I’d like Clark to reign in her body language (something, Wright Thompson writes, has existed forever with her), it generally seems that the Fever over the last two games enjoy each other. And that’s a great start. We got a window into what the Fever can be. Let’s see if they can sustain it.

5. It’s time to let everyone play basketball.

Point 5 in the column over the last few weeks has been the place where we address the larger discussions happening around women’s basketball. I think we all can generally agree that sports is often a microcosm of society. But for some, it’s escapism. For others, it’s a mirror that we can put up to see ourselves and those around us. We do the think pieces, we discuss what a play or a comment means in the larger discourse happening in this country (the culture wars, as some call it). In many ways, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have been dehumanized into walking Rorschach Tests. You see in them what you want to see.

However, it was pretty clear watching Clark squirm through a pregame media session that it may be time to let all of these kids just focus on playing basketball. Much like it was with Chennedy Carter, I don’t think the asking of the question is the issue. It’s the big story and as journalists, you’re obligated to ask. But in asking Clark how she feels about being essentially a proxy in a culture war, you’re forcing her to ascribe herself a role within it. In a tug of war for the soul of America, it was pretty clear in that moment she didn’t have any interest in even holding the rope. So it didn’t surprise me why she answered the question the way that she did and I also don’t blame her for not being online in the way that she contends. This is a 22 year old woman who, before the season started, had graphic photos of herself circulated online among other things. I wouldn’t blame anyone for never checking into social media after that.

While on Reddit, I saw a constructive piece of nuance from user BoredyMcBored, who made a point I thought was worth highlighting here in the column. For some, Clark’s statements shouldn’t have been about telling people to stop using her name to spread incendiary rhetoric. Realistically, bad faith actors didn’t stop when she defended Angel Reese after the 2023 National Championship and they aren’t going to stop as long as there’s money to be made from the outrage machine. Instead, that time could’ve been spent defending her teammates and others in the league without drawing a line in the sand about the greater culture war issue. I can understand Clark’s media strategy of deplatforming and not giving attention to these types of discussions. The less air you give it the less it will travel, the thinking goes. But I did find myself agreeing with the idea that while it’s not on Clark to be an activist, she at the very least owed her teammates some type of public support. And in distancing herself from narratives and discourse she left her teammates, in some way, on an island to be the recipients of the vitriol. Even if Clark isn’t responsible, a public defense of your coworkers is at least a gesture that you’re aware of how this affects them as well as you. She eventually made good that night at a pregame shootaround and, I’d imagine, had a few conversations with teammates including Aliyah Boston, whose friend got on social media to excoriate Clark’s unwillingness to take a public stand that morning.

Which brings me to the last piece of this. The WNBA is not an activist league. It is a sports league with activists (a term with a nebulous definition in 2024 anyway) within it. When you are drafted into the league, you are not automatically championing very specific causes as a monolith. Natasha Cloud, for instance, is outspoken in her support of Palestine. But that’s not a league stance, or potentially even a popular one within the W. During the 2020 social movements, debate broke out in Orlando about boycotting the WNBA season. Courtney Williams, deeply affected by what had happened that spring, said that if the players wanted to make a statement, they could’ve done that before the season started. She was there for a check and because people depended on her and that money. It’s a deeply human, very understandable viewpoint that doesn’t make Williams an enemy to the W’s causes. Some people see the league as a job. Some others just want to play basketball and if they have causes important to them, they utilize their platform individually. A’ja Wilson is building basketball courts. Sabrina Ionescu is running clinics in East Harlem. Caitlin Clark has long had her foundation partnered with Boys & Girls Clubs of Iowa. Ultimately, some fans may *want* their favorite players to be champions of causes that resonate with them personally. But to ask everyone to have a uniform style of advocacy can ultimately lead to performative activism or the checking of rhetorical boxes. And that, to me, is the biggest concern in an American culture that already has a rather strained and complex relationship with activism in the first place.

At this point, we’ve think pieced enough for a lifetime. I would hope that Clark’s comments this week means we can stop asking about where she stands. Naive thinking, I know. But it’s important to remember that players like Caitlin Clark *and* Angel Reese deserve grace. While they’re professional athletes, they are young adults thrust into a spotlight unseen in sports in quite some time. For a little bit, let’s let them just play basketball. We’ve asked them all we need to ask them on the culture war front for now.